The Department of Salad Dressing Room

Hey, how about a chunky Parmesan walnut dressing. Or one that takes its inspiration from chunky tartar sauce. It's a chunky week.

WELCOME BACK TO THE DRESSING ROOM, a place for vinaigrettes, dressings, crunchy toppings, and other salad accoutrements to call their very own 👗 💍 💎 👖 🫙 This is an occasional feature of the Department of Salad—because we all know that getting dressed is one of the first things humans do in the morning but the last thing they think of when making a salad.

It’s tragic. We will make the same dressing over and over and over and over until life has practically lost all meaning. I recently noticed while shaking up a jar of my Usual Mustard Vinaigrette, which I absolutely love, that I was humming “Is That All There Is” in my best inner Peggy Lee voice. Which is to say, it’s nice to have something reliable—until it becomes unbearable.

Which is why it’s also nice to have a dressing or sauce that will help you get out of bed in the morning. A recipe that comes thisclose to upstaging whatever you put it on but stops short just in time to be complementary, instead.

What if you had a couple of dressings that popped into your mind every time you thought of sturdy greens and steamed or roasted vegetables? That’s what we hope we have for you today. The walnut Parmesan dressing is perfect for leaves with big crunch, like romaine or kale (with apples or pears?), and/or big flavors, like chicories. But it’s also perfect for steamed (haricots verts? potatoes?) or roasted (winter squash, Brussels sprouts, carrots?) vegetables, since the cheese will release its full power when it hits something hot. And the tartar sauce vinaigrette—which is tart and sharp and full of capers and cornichons— would also be good on anything you’d use actual tartar sauce on—fish, seafood, fried foods—in addition to most leafy green and vegetable salads, both soft and robust.

That’s all I have to say, believe it or not. Except I hope you like these dressings!

---

DID YOU KNOW? It takes two kinds of lettuce (🥬 + $$) to keep the Department of Salad going. The best way to support us, if you don’t already: Press the green button (and get full access to all the salad in our enormous archive). Or give a gift!

---

*RECIPE: DOS Parmesan Walnut Dressing

Makes about ½ cup

Keep this rich and delicious potion in your fridge and spoon it over/toss it with everything, hot or cold. Just make sure you stir it well before you use it. It has a lot of characteristics of a pesto, so if you wanted to add a few tablespoons of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley or basil, no one would call the police.

• ½ cup toasted walnuts (See note, below)

• 1 large clove garlic, grated

• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

• ½ cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano

• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

• ½  teaspoon honey

• ½ to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I start with ½ teaspoon)

• Kosher salt

Add the walnuts, garlic, and two tablespoons of the olive oil to the bowl of a mini food processor or blender and process until you have a well incorporated, evenly chunky mixture. Add remaining ¼ cup olive oil, along with the cheese, lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, honey, and ½ teaspoon black pepper and process again to combine. Taste for salt and more pepper, lemon, or even olive oil. You want to add a bit more finely grated cheese? Go ahead, then process again briefly. Use immediately, at room temperature, or transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate.

NOTE I like to use Martha Stewart’s walnut-toasting method, which goes like this: Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). Place walnut pieces in a baking pan in a single layer; toast until golden brown and fragrant, about 10 minutes.

Dos Parmesan Walnut Dressing

1.04MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

*RECIPE: DOS Tartar Sauce Vinaigrette

Makes over ½ cup

I came up with this dressing because I absolutely love a good chunky tartar sauce and I obviously love salad but I don’t like the idea of typically heavy tartar sauce on salad. I wanted all the pickle-y, capery, mysterious flavors without any mayonnaise. That’s how this recipe started out, and it was pretty good. But after I added just one tablespoon of mayonnaise, it became exactly what I’d dreamed of. Tarragon is not exactly traditional in tartar sauce, and neither are olives. But I love both, so I added them.

• 2 heaping tablespoons chopped shallot

• 3 tablespoons chopped cornichons

• 1 tablespoon chopped green olives

• 1 tablespoon tarragon leaves

• ¼ cup flat leaf parsley leaves

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

• 2 tablespoons capers

• ¼ cup olive oil

• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (I like Duke’s)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

• Dash of Tabasco or pinch of cayenne

  

In the bowl of a mini food processor or blender, combine the shallot, cornichons, olives, tarragon, parsley, lemon juice, and vinegar and process until ingredients have the slightly chunky consistency of pickle relish. Add the capers, olive oil, and mayonnaise and process again briefly, just enough to incorporate and emulsify—you don’t want to puree. Taste and season with salt and pepper and a dash of Tabasco or pinch of cayenne. Transfer to a jar with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate for several hours or overnight to let the flavors marry. Before serving, allow the dressing to sit at room temperature long enough to loosen up, then shake vigorously to re-emulsify.

Dos Tartar Sauce Vinaigrette

806KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

🥬 🥬🥬 🥬That’s It! We’re done here! We’ll see you soon with some actual salad.

🥬🥬🥬 ONE MORE THING: Please remember that while you may receive The Department of Salad as an e-mail, all issues of the newsletter—along with any corrections, the archive, and our Fancy New Recipe Index—are always available at the Department of Salad website. (You can always search “The Department of Salad” or go directly to emilyrnunn.substack.com.) All the recipes from all the newsletters will be there for you. To search the Index, simply use the search function (command F) that produces a search bar in the upper-right-hand corner of the page.

🥬 🥬ALSO, I’M WONDERING: Do you follow me on Instagram? My feed is not a consistent array of uniformly styled photos of perfect food, which I know is what I’m supposed to offer. But I get too bored. So it includes videos of giant pandas loudly eating carrots and personal crap representative of my bad personality. I’d love to have you. Go here: Emily’s Instagram

🥬 IN THE MEANTIME: If you feel like sharing the Department of Salad with friends or family who deserve it, please do so with the buttons below—it would mean the world to us! Thanks for being a subscriber.